My Cigarette Loves Your Cigarette (Details)
citation: Collier's, September 30, 1950, 126(14):16-17, 52, 54, 56
alias: None
teaser: Here again are Timberlake Ryan, who couldn't lose his youth if he tried, and Eve, his long-sufferin', ever-lovin' wife.
summary: Meeting his wife for lunch, Timberlake Ryan tries to surprise Eve by pretending to be a stranger, trying to pick her up. Unsurprised, and when ignoring him is ineffective, Eve tries to turn the tables on him. Each jokes they are still attractive to the opposite sex, but also note they are no longer young.
They walk to a small restaurant where they order drinks. Eve is nostalgic for the time before they were married. Tim agrees. Eve livens the conversation, recounting how charming Tim was, and how they met. She asks the inevitable question about how many girls Tim knew before she knew him. Eve remembers a man named Georgie she dated before Tim.
After lunch, Eve announces she is going to order new drapes at
Macy's. Rather than go back to the office on this Saturday,
Tim decides not to accompany Eve, but meet her later for drinks. It
isn't the same any more, is it?
he asks as they part.
Initially depressed, Tim recalls the excitement and promise of being single in New York. He buys a bag of popcorn, then shares it with a young woman in a car stopped for a light. He appreciates her attention.
Tim walks past a stamp-and-coin store, then has a drink in a bar where a baseball game is on the television. He finds no pleasure in the experience. He visits a Magic Shop and buys a licorice comb, false nose and glasses, and fake pewter sugar spoon. He takes his purchases, and walks to meet Eve.
Sitting next to her at the bar, Tim puts on the glasses with false nose
and asks Eve for a match. She is not amused. When his drink arrives, Tim
pulls out the licorice comb and takes a bite out of it, only embarassing
Eve. Finally, when he places his cigarette next to Eve's on the ashtray and
says My cigarette loves your cigarette,
she
relents.
Tim tells her he spent the afternoon pretending he was single again, concluding it was not fun, remembering that loneliness was also a part of being single. He recalls that when he met Eve he wanted to be married to her, and still felt that way.
Eve confesses she feels likewise; that her old boyfriend Georgie was just
date insurance,
against loneliness.
Their misgivings behind them, this time Eve lets Tim pick her up, and take her home.
words: 5,336
genre: Timberlake Ryan, SLice-of-Life
similar: Manhattan Idyl, I'm Mad at You, Breakfast in Bed, Long-Distance Call, The Little Courtesies, Week-End Genius, One-Man Show, Sounds in the Night, Man of the Cocktail Hour, Tattletale Tape; You Haven't Changed a Bit, Sneak Preview, I Like It This Way, Husband at Home, Legal and Tender, Rainy Sunday, Expression of Love, Vive la Différence, Bedtime Story, Take One Rainy Night, Old Enough for Love, The Sunny Side of the Street, No Time for the Billiard Ballet
people: Timberlake Ryan, Eve Ryan, Georgie, young woman, bartender
places: New York, NY: Fifth Avenue, Fifty-seventh Street, Trafalgar bar, Sixth Avenue, Macy's, Lexington Avenue, Magic Shop, The Cloisters, Washington Square; Mill Valley, CA
comments: Forthcoming